This invention relates generally to the adaptation of integrated circuit chips for use as part of a particular computer system, and, more specifically, to the configuration of registers internal to integrated circuit chips.
Early microcomputer systems commercialized in the 1970s included a microprocessor (CPU) as one integrated circuit chip, and then a number of additional integrated circuit chips which were dedicated to work with the microprocessor and each other. These separately packaged chips were commonly carried by a printed circuit board to form the electronic core of the microcomputer. In addition to memory chips, these other chips were dedicated to various functions such as a disk controller, graphics controller, communications controller, display interface, coprocessor, and the like.
Currently, the electronic core of a microcomputer is configured generally in the same way, with a plurality of packaged integrated circuit chips interconnected on a mother printed circuit board, but many of the current chips are configurable by the system designer for use with various different computer systems. An example is a universal serial controller product of Zilog, Inc., assignee of the present application, which functions to interconnect a communications line, such as one which may connected to a modem external of the computer system, with the bus of the computer system. This integrated circuit chip contains a number of internal control registers which are loaded with control bits through pins of the circuit package. Individual fields of one or more bits each have specified control functions, such as designating whether the controller chip is to be used with an 8- or 16-bit bus, whether that bus is multiplexed or not, the protocol of communications with the chip, and so forth. The single chip product can thus be configured by system designers for use with a number of different specific microprocessors and systems. It is thus unnecessary to maintain a large inventory of the same controller product for use in all the different environments in which it can be utilized.
In order to provide a maximum universality of the Zilog controller integrated circuit chip mentioned above, over 100 different control fields are contained in 33 16-bit volatile memory registers. The register location and address of each of these fields is identified in a Technical Manual published by Zilog, Inc. for its parts nos. Z16C30/Z16C33, dated March, 1990, which Manual is expressly incorporated herein by this reference. This Manual provides the information of the part that is necessary for a computer system designer to be able to specify the control register contents that are required for the part to operate in a particular system for which it is intended. The manual is used, generally, by reference to each control field, one at a time, and selecting from the available choices for a given field the bit patterns which are desired to be loaded into it. Once the contents of all the control registers are specified, these choices are then incorporated into the system software so that they are loaded to the part's control registers each time the computer system is initialized for operation.
As a result of a desire to increase the versatility of an individual integrated circuit part, the number of such control fields and registers is increasing. It is a very large, time-consuming task to select the contents of so many register fields. Therefore, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide tools for making this task less onerous.